Roll-up boat



Sept. 22, 1910 E. I. ROBINSKY ROLL-UP BOAT 5 l N ow B v e 00 I n h TR. S N L o I [H .W U A 6 IE 41. m M

Filed Jan. 27, 1969 P 22, 1970 r l. ROBINSKY 3,529,312

' ROLL-UP BOAT Filed Jan. 27, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ELI I. ROBINSKY United States Patent 3,529,312 ROLL-UP BOAT Eli I. Robinsky, 301 Jedburglr Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Filed Jan. 27, 1969, Ser. No. 794,212 Int. Cl. B63b 7/06 US. C]. 92 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A roll-up boat made of resilient material such as steel or memory type plastic, which can be transported in a rolled-up condition to the place where it is to be used. It is then unrolled and manually formed into a boat by bending the sides to form the top sides of the hull, fastening the bow ends together, in liquid tight bow forming position by a removable bow forming member. The stern end is formed by a removable transom which is fastened, in liquid tight engagement across the stern end by releasable catches, such as a trunk type catch. A seat connected across the hull, about midship, adds to the rigidity of the hull.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It has heretofore been proposed to make roll-up or foldable boats so that they can be easily transported to the site where they are to be used.

One type of such boat is made in detachable permanently formed sections which can be connected together to form a boat.

Another type is made of light-weight canvass, plastic or other suitable material provided with inflatable compartments which when inflated form the bow sides and stem of the boat. Being made of such material they are easily damaged by tearing, etc. Another disadvantage of such structures is the time and efiort which must be expended in inflating the inflatable compartments.

OUTLINE OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the foregoing objections to the collapsible boats presently in use by providing a roll-up boat made of steel, aluminum or other resilient,

readily flexible material which can be transported from place to place in a rolled-up condition and be easily formed into a boat hull for use as a boat. When it is desired to transport the boat to a new location, it can be readily dismantled and rolled-up for such transport. The boat hull, being made of metal or other tough resilient material is not easily damaged under normal conditions of use. Furthermore it is much lighter than the collapsible hulls presently in use since it does not require, for example as in the case of inflatable boats, the additional material required for making the inflatable compartments to give buoyancy to the boat hull.

The roll-up boat of the present invention comprises a substantially flat sheet of thin resilient material, such as steel, aluminum, fibreglass, plastic or other resilient easily flexible material, the sheet having a bow end and a stern end, said material being stressed to normally lie flat and bendable along its longitudinal axis to form the bottom and top sides of the hull; a bow forming member secured to the front end whereby when the sheet is bent into hull form with the port and starboard sides to form a prow at the bow end whereby said sides are detachably joined together; means forming a liquid tight seal between the abutting sides which form the prow; a detachably transom and means detachably securing said transom in the stern end, said means comprising a strap connected to the sheet, across the stern end thereof and having free ends extending beyond the lengthwise edges of the sheet, fastening means connecting the free ends under tension to the 3,529,312 Patented Sept. 22, 1970 "ice top edge of the transom, and a liquid sealing member engageable between opposing surfaces of the transom and the sheet.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows the sheet material in a that position with the related parts connected thereto, less the transom;

FIG. 2 shows the elements of FIG. 1 folded into the shape of a boat hull;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view of the bow end of the boat shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross section on the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view taken looking into the bow of the boat illustrated in FIG. 2, in cross section to show details of construction;

FIG. -6 of the structure shown in FIG. 5 opened into the flat position;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an alternative structure to that shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 inclusive;

FIG. 8 is an horizontal cross section on the line 8-8 of FIG. 7 taken through the bow of the boat;

FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view on the line 99 of FIG. 7; and

FIG. 10 illustrates the flat sheet from which the boat illustrated in FIG. 7 is formed, to illustrate how it is wound up for storage and transport or unwound for forming into the boat illustrated in FIG. 7.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 6, the embodiment therein illustrated comprises a substantiall flat sheet 10 made of resilient, flexible material such as steel, aluminum or plastic having a bow end generally indicated by the number 11 and a stern end generally indicated by the number 12. There is mounted on the bow end 11 a bow forming member generally indicated by the number 13 which will now be particularly described.

The bow forming member I13, in the present modification, consists of a pair of wedged shaped members 14, 15. The length of the members 14, 15 are substantially half the width of the sheet 10 and are hinged at their abutting ends by a hinge 16 as shown in FIG. 1. The bow forming member 13 is attached to the bow end of the sheet 10 by means of rivets 17 as shown in FIG. 4. There is placed between the opposing faces of the wedged shaped members 14, 15 and the sheet 10, a sealing strip I18 of flexible relatively-soft sponge gasket material so that water will not leak between sheet 10 and the bow forming members. The upwardly facing surfaces of the wedged shaped members 14, 15 are provided with soft sponge gasket sealers, 1'9, 20. By this construction, a perfect seal will be formed when the bow end is bent to make a bow with the members 14, 15 in contact with each other as shown in FIG. 2. The wedged shaped members 14, 15 are retained in the position shown in FIG. 2 by means of a bolt 21 which is entered through bolt holes 22, 23 formed in the members 14, 15.

Mounted on the stern end of the sheet is a sealing membrane 22 and a strap 23 which has its ends extending beyond the side edges of the sheet, the said ends terminating in loops 24, 25. A transom 26 is mounted in the stern end as shown in FIG. 2 and secured therein by means of eccentric type fasteners 27, 28 which are suit ably mounted on the top edge 29 of the transom. It will be seen from this type of construction of the catches that by rotating the fasteners 27, 28 so that they are standing in a substantially vertical position and then dropping the loops 24, 25 onto the shoulder portion and then rotating the catches to the position shown in FIG. 2 that the strap 23 will be tensioned and the stern portion of the sheet will be brought tightly into engagement with the edges of the transom with suflicient force to be 3 retained therein. The sealing membrane 22 in addition to forming a liquid seal provides an anti-slipping surface which assists in holding the transom in place.

FIGS. 7 to 10 illustrate an alternate construction to the one previously shown.

In this construction the resilient sheet 10a is formed with longitudinal corrugations 30 to increase the rigidity when the sheet is bent into the form of a hull as shown in FIG. 7. The corrugations also facilitate the three dimensional curvature. In this modification the bow forming member is in the form of V-shaped pocket generally indicated by the number 31 into which the bow end when bent to form into the prow can be inserted. The V-pocket 31 is provided with a V-shaped sealing liner 32 which forms a seal along the abutting edges of the bow end of the sheet 10a. The V-pocket is provided with outwardly extending brackets 33, 34 which register with complemental brackets 35, 36 attached to the bow end of the sheet 10a as shown. The V-pocket is secured in place by machine screws 37, 38 which are entered through the brackets 35, 36 and the flanges 33, 34.

FIG. 10 can be taken as illustrating either the sheet being unrolled from the rolled-up state or as being rolled into the rolled-state.

The manner of forming a boat from the flat sheet shown in the drawings is self explanatory from the drawings. The material being of lightweight and resiliently flexible material is bent to bring the bow fo ming members 14, into engagement and then securing them in that position by means of the bolt 21. The transom is secured in the stern end by placing it on the sealing membrane 22 and then bending it to bring the loops 24, into engagement with the eccentric fasteners 27,

28 which on being turned to the position shown in FIG. 2 will place the strap under tension and securely fasten the transom in position.

The boat may be dismantled and returned ,to the flat state so that it can be rolled up by removing the bolt 21 and releasing the fasteners 27, 28.

In the structure shown in FIGS. 7 to 10 inclusive the sheet is formed into the form of a hull by bringing the bow ends of the sheet 10a together and securing them in that position by means of the V-pocket 31 which is placed over the bow and secured in position by means of the machine screws 37, 38 which are entered through the brackets 33, and 34, 36 respectively.

What I claim is:

1. A roll-up boat comprising a substantially flat sheet of thin resilient material having a bow end and a stern end, said material being stressed to normally lie flat and bendable along its longitudinal axis to form a boat hull; a bow-forming member secured to the front whereby when the sheet is bent into hull form with port and starboard sides to form a prow at the .bow end, hereby said sides are detachably joined together; means forming a liquid tight seal between the abutting sides which form the prow; a detachable transom and means detachably securing said transom in the stern end, said means comprising a strap connected to the sheet, across the stern end thereof and having free ends extending beyond the lengthwise edges of the sheet, fastening means connecting the free ends under tension to the top edge of the transom, and a liquid sealing member engageable between opposing surfaces of the transom and the sheet.

2. A roll-up boat according to claim 1 wherein the bow forming member comprises a pair of wedge-shaped blocks mounted on the bow end of the sheet in end-to-end relationship and hingedly conected together on the longitudinal axis of the sheet, each block having a length equal to one-half the width of the sheet, and the sealing means comprises a continuous liquid sealing membrane interposed between the blocks and the contiguous surface of the sheet and an outer sealing member affixed along the outside surface of each block, said outer sealing members being brought into liquid sealing engagement when the bow end is bent into prow-forming formation and means releasably securing the bow-end in said prow forming position.

3. A roll-up boat according to claim 1 in which the bow forming member comprises an elongated clamping member of substantially the same length as one-half the width of the sheet, said clamping member having a V shaped channel throughout its length, a V-shaped liquid sealing member contained in said channel and complemental fastening devices carried by the clamping member and the bow end of the sheet whereby, when the bow-end is bent to form the prow the clamping member is Iemovably secured in place in liquid tight engagement.

4. A roll-up boat according to claim 1 in which the fastening means includes a loop on each of the free ends and an eccentrically mounted catch mounted on the top edge of the transom, one for each loop, each catch being mounted for limited rotation between an attaching position and a locking position whereby when a loop is connected to its respective catch at the attaching position and rotated to the locking position said strap is tensioned thereby securely fastening the transom in the stem end of the sheet.

5. A roll-up boat according to claim 2 in which the means releasably securing the bow end in said prow forming position consists of bolts entered through the bow end of the sheet and threaded into said wedge shaped blocks.

6. A roll-up boat according to claim 1 in which the flat sheet is formed with spaced apart corrugations extending longitudinally thereof thereby increasing the lengthwise rigidity of the hull.

TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary Examiner 

